Three home runs is more than enough

Game Date: September 15, 2009
Kansas City @ Detroit
Royals 11, Tigers 1 / Box Score
WP: Tejeda (3-1), LP: Washburn (9-9)
KC Home Runs: Olivo (20), DeJesus (13), Callaspo (10)
Royals Record: 58-86 / Record in September 8-5

A misplayed ball in the outfield; a four pitch walk; a passed ball; a three-run dinger; and 30 pitches by the starting pitcher—all in the first inning. Oddly enough, it wasn't another Royals' implosion, but rather the Royals taking advantage of another team's misfortunes.

After Miguel Olivo hit the Royals’ third three-run home run of the night, Frank White said you have to wonder what all of this winning in September means for the Royals. Whatever it means, I’m pretty sure that Royals fans will be much slower to read anything into it this season than we did last season.

My guess is, there isn’t any pressure on the guys. The season is over. The only thing they are playing for is to avoid losing 100 games and I suspect that staying under the 100 loss mark means more to Dayton Moore than it does anybody else. Since there isn’t any pressure, hitters are getting better swings and pitchers seem to be challenging more hitters.

Alex Gordon, on the other hand, is probably feeling some pressure. He butchered a couple of ground balls at third base and he’s not exactly tearing it up at the plate. You have to wonder what the future holds for him.

Robinson Tejeda has been a nice surprise since being forced into the rotation. He threw too many pitches tonight, but you can’t argue with his results. He’s thrown 16.1 innings over the last three games and he’s only given up one run. I thought his changeup and slider looked a little flat early in the game, but his fastball was good enough to overcome it—especially when he challenged hitters with it up out of the zone.

Tomorrow, we’ll get another look at Lenny DiNardo.